Product Photography Help

[LinzMedia]

I'm a photographer for a landscape business. I'm also a graphic designer so I'm designing their website. I'm adding a supplies list to their website. I'd ideally like to have pictures of the supplies but I only have access to a handful of them to take photos of. Any suggestions of what I could do?

 

[astroNikon]

take pictures of the supplies ?

We don't know what the size is of the products. You could use a small white box (small items). Or maybe you have large items that need a table (landscaping bricks), or even larger (shrubs, trees).

you'll need to provide a bit more information, such as a budget and better information on what you are asking.

 

[LinzMedia]

He orders the supplies as he needs them for his project so a lot of the supplies are not being used right now so I can't just go out and take photos of them like everything else. It's items like different types or mulch, rock, gravel, soil, sod and some other random yard accessories.

It's a fairly small budges so that's why I'm trying to figure out the most cost efficient way to go about this.

 

[Designer]

Any suggestions of what I could do?

Ask the suppliers to give you (i.e.; for free) photos of their stuff. You might have to make photos from different suppliers "look the same", but that should get you started.

 

[astroNikon]

^^^ This above. You can't take pictures of things you don't have.

 

[Dave442]

I also agree with the above, find some local suppliers of similar product and ask for samples.

 

[KmH]

Any suggestions of what I could do?

Ask the suppliers to give you (i.e.; for free) photos of their stuff. You might have to make photos from different suppliers "look the same", but that should get you started.

Be sure you get a legal copyright use license along with any photos you get from suppliers.

 

[LinzMedia]

Thanks for idea and responses! I appreciate it.

 

[JoeW]

I have a couple of suggestions:

1. Something that could be a cool design element throughout the website is to use hand renderings of proposed landscape layouts. It's possible they could even serve as a template on the site itself (that text went over).

2. Get suppliers to provide photos. If it's a big chain or nation-wide supplier, they'll have pictures.

3. Take pictures of what you have and continually build up your stock (as supplies come in or are used) so that eventually you have enough stock to display on the website. I think it's particularly important to focus on specific products. For instance, I think it's useful to have pictures of a range of different mulch. If you ask me "Joe, do you want the shredded or the split mulch?" I"m going to go "huh?" So if there's a picture on the website (a close-up of the 7 different types of mulch) in a well-lit setting (so no shadow, no harsh light, correct white balance) then I can accurately choose. I think the same with stones (next to a ruler or some object of scale like a coin). The point is: you may not have pictures of 90% of the items which will bug you as a website designer. But identify which products are most critical to have visuals of so people can compare against competing products and chose wisely. I think stones and mulch are two examples.